


Helsby and the Question of Love and Hollow Earth Submariners

by TheLodgersEnthusiast (Morgan_Molliniere)



Series: The Society of Weird Feelings [14]
Category: The Glass Scientists (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Internalized Homophobia, also infighting among two lodgers once again, well sort of?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 05:28:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19266757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morgan_Molliniere/pseuds/TheLodgersEnthusiast
Summary: Helsby is surprised on the Lodgers' views of love.Oh, and he reaches an understanding with that other Lodger they call Mosley.





	Helsby and the Question of Love and Hollow Earth Submariners

**Author's Note:**

> I had this floating around my incomplete fics folder for some time, so I went ahead and finished it in a single night - that way if it sounds wonky in the beginning, that's because it was written earlier. This may seem pretty straightforward, but later on the fic becomes kinda dominated by a single conversation, so welp.
> 
> Why did I suddenly decide to post this without warning or previews? Who knows! Maybe my desire for more published content with these two guys? This was mostly an attempt to reconcile Helsby's past and characterization in The Murder Game AU (another fic I made) with The Society of Weird Feelings, though.
> 
> The scars over Mosley's face is a headcanon that I'm not really sure where it came from, possibly my friend AuthorLoremIpsum?
> 
> Anyway, if you're wondering when this takes place, this takes place before "It's A Long Story".

One thing that surprised Ranjit Helsby about the Society was how easily they took to the idea of people liking other people of the same gender.

Considering what had happened to him before, when he got invited to the Society, he knew that he was going to keep the side of him that liked other men a secret. If he would tell anyone – hell, if he somehow managed to fall for yet another man! – he would be finished, and his dream of pursuing his science would be gone.

One day he heard some of the other Lodgers speaking freely about their romantic relationships. At that time, he was itching to get closer to the others, so he came closer and made his presence known.

“Hey, everyone!” he said cheerily, as everyone else looked up at him. “Mind if I join in?”

“Oh, Dr. Helsby!” Bird said. “Not at all. Come on in!”

Accepting that warm welcome, he sat with the other Lodgers, and they resumed their conversation. He pursed his lips a little, and tugged at his collar, lest his thoughts of his own past relationships come crawling out of his mouth.

He then noticed someone sitting from across him; it was Martin Mosley, the resident hollow Earth submariner. Their eyes met for a bit – though Helsby couldn't really tell because of Mosley's goggles – and then Mosley looked away, crossing his arms. At that, Helsby frowned.

Mosley and Helsby had entered the Society at around the same time, and as such had learned about each other's sciences on the same day. It then devolved into an argument about whose science was better, as they contested that going to the depths of the ocean was either worse or better than going to the fabled hollow Earth. Jekyll had managed to break them up, and their relationship had cooled a little as two months passed, but neither of them thought too highly of each other after that.

“So, Dr. Helsby?”

He snapped back to attention and noticed all the other Lodgers turning to him. “Hm?” he asked.

“We realized we don't know anything about your love life, dear,” Cantilupe said. “You can tell us all about it, if you like.”

“Well, better now, than having one of us figure it out eventually,” Tweedy added. “You know how big gossips we all are, heh.”

Oh, that was right. The Lodgers were pretty big gossip-mongers. Not like Helsby hadn't managed to hide his secret from everyone else so far. And it wasn't like he couldn't lie. So he cleared his throat, put on his best smile, and spoke.

“To tell you the truth,” he began, “I've had various failed courtships.” (That wasn't a lie, at least. Not yet.) “You'd think that that was because the women threw themselves at me, but it was the exact opposite.”

“Luckett can't relate,” Tweedy said, clapping a hand on Luckett's shoulder.

“What are you implying?” Luckett asked, playfully shoving Tweedy in return. Then he looked back at Helsby. “Ah, do go on.”

Helsby went on, “My latest romance right before I came to this Society was the worst out of them all, in fact. I offered a lady my love, but she totally rejected and humiliated me.” He then waved a hand. “It's fine, though. I'm over it.”

“Oh, I wish I was so lucky,” Bird said. “I mean, I still feel the pain every time I remember the first time I got rejected. That man definitely thought I wasn't serious.”

Helsby paused. “Huh?”

“Yes, there was also one time when a woman I was in a relationship with left me for a rich man,” Cantilupe added. “I really did think she was the one. But time healed me.”

“It really does,” Luckett said. Then he turned to Helsby. “It's good that you're able to move forward, though.”

Helsby stared at him for a few seconds, before realizing what Luckett had said to him, and grinning. “Oh, yeah! Yeah! It was pretty hard, but it's ok now.” He laughed a little, and then pushed his glasses back up his nose. “So, tell me more about these escapades!”

And they did. And Helsby found himself more and more amazed that these Lodgers just...didn't care about same sex relationships. In fact, here it was just as normal as any other relationship.

Where had these people been his whole life?

 

* * *

 

It was nighttime when Helsby found himself thinking about these things as he tinkered with a bathysphere of his own design. He had to concentrate, make sure it wasn't going to just become a metal underwater grave...but he couldn't get that talk out of his mind.

He put his screwdriver down, and exhaled out of his nose. Even after knowing this, he still hadn't been able to be open about the fact that the lady who had rejected and humiliated him had actually been a man. Which he didn't blame himself for. He would like to get truly close with these Lodgers and get to know what kind of people they really were before revealing his secrets. So his facade was up, for now.

Slowly, he tilted his head back, and exhaled towards the ceiling. Well, there was no use in thinking about that now, and yet he couldn't get it out of his head.

Did that mean that...it was alright for him to be like this? Did that mean that he was treated unfairly based on the people he loved?

Or were the people in the Society in the wrong too, and the rest of the city was right in shunning them?

He didn't have much time to think about this, though, before someone entered his lab, and he turned to see them. And by some weird chance, it just happened to be Mosley.

Mosley didn't look at him right away, though. He seemed to be looking for something, judging by the way he was peering around corners and looking under tables. A moment passed in this way, before Helsby cleared his throat, and Mosley looked up at him.

“Need anything?” Helsby asked, raising an eyebrow.

He moved to look up – and bumped his head against the table. A snort escaped Helsby's lips, and at that Mosley rubbed his head, before turning to his direction and huffing.

“Nothing, I was just looking for Griffin's cat,” he said, a little irritably. “You seen a cat, by any chance?”

Helsby shook his head. “No, not that I remember.”

Mosley nodded. “In that case, I should be taking my leave,” he said curtly. And he would have been out the door straightaway, were it not for a puddle in his way causing him to slip and fall onto the floor.

As he groaned in pain, Helsby got up and walked over to him. “Are you alright?” he asked. As much as he didn't like the man, he didn't want him to get hurt in his lab. Mostly because Mosley could blame it on him if he got seriously hurt, but, well.

Mosley had landed on his face, and now put a hand to his face while Helsby stopped in front of him. He hissed, and pulled his scarf down from his face, before pulling his goggles up. He ran a hand over his face – maybe his goggles had made the impact worse? It took a second for that to go through Helsby's mind, and another for him to realize that this was the first time he saw the man without his face being covered.

Was that a scar on his face, over his mouth?

He looked up at Helsby, an annoyed look on his face. “Do you not mop the floors in your lab, or is it always wet here?” he asked.

“I – well, I might forget, but–” Helsby huffed. “You should really be more careful.”

“Because of your mistake of not cleaning up the water on your floor?”

“If you're going to take issue with it, then at least don't raise your voice like that!”

Mosley stood up, and pointed a finger at Helsby. “I'm not raising my voice, you are.”

Helsby frowned, but let it go. He then raised his own finger to point it at Mosley's face. “Is that from the impact, or is that new?” he asked.

Mosley blinked, and then put a hand up to the scar. “If you must know,” he said, though his tone became a little less argumentative, "digging accident.”

Helsby nodded, and then put his hands in his pockets. “Seriously, though, what is it that you find so charming about the hollow earth?”

Mosley lowered his hand. “There are many beautiful things in the center of the earth. A world inside our world, hidden treasures, the thrill of wandering somewhere most people wouldn't dare to venture.” He then crossed his arms. “What say you about your ocean depths?”

“...The same thing, actually,” Helsby said. “Sure, it might be dangerous to go somewhere where you can't breathe, but I find it marvelous.”

“Honestly, I'm not entirely sure if we can breathe in the hollow earth, either,” Mosley went on. “And my calculations say it must be very hot close to the earth's core.”

“The pressure from the ocean as you go deeper would be overwhelming.”

“There has to be a safer way to explore the hollow earth.”

“As with the depths of the ocean!”

“But I love it anyway,” they both finished simultaneously.

There was a pause, before they realized what they did, and then Helsby looked away while Mosley covered his mouth again with his scarf. He kept his eyes uncovered for a bit, though, and looked back at Helsby.

“...We must have more in common than we thought,” Mosley said.

Helsby nodded, adjusting his glasses. “Yeah, I guess so.” A smirk then appeared on his face. “Why were we disagreeing on that point for months, anyway?”

“Mostly because you tried to give me the old one-two in our first conversation,” Mosley said. “Then again, that's because I said the ocean wasn't beautiful.”

“You gonna take that back?”

“Show me the beauty of the ocean, I just might.”

Helsby was hoping Mosley was smiling under his scarf. So he showed him one smile of his own. “I'll show you the beauty of the ocean, you show me what's so fantastic about the hollow earth.”

Mosley nodded. “It's a deal.” Then after making a sound that sounded a bit like a laugh, he pulled his goggles down over his eyes. “Anyway, I have to go look for a cat. Someone might have beaten me to it by now, but still.” He then turned, careful to watch his step on the way out.

He found himself staring after the man for a while, and then he turned back to the bathysphere he had been tinkering with.

Was it wrong that he felt a little nice after talking to Mosley?

He guessed it wasn't. What would be really wrong was if he developed feelings for the man.

But, Helsby supposed as he sat back down in front of his work, such a thing wouldn't happen.

He wouldn't he able to survive if it did.

 


End file.
